


F is for Friends

by shes_an_oddbird



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Academy Era, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-02-15
Packaged: 2018-03-13 02:49:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3364901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shes_an_oddbird/pseuds/shes_an_oddbird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My gift to herstorystartedhere for the Fitzsimmons Secret Valentine's Exchange on tumblr. Fitz and Simmons have very different methods of preparing for their exams at the academy. Unfortunately neither is full proof.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Jemma's First F

_Meet at Study Room A1-JS_

Leave it to Jemma Simmons to have the very first study room reserved even during the busiest study week of the year. Fitz walked between shelves of books towards the back of the library, hoping he was in fact in the right library; there were four on the SciTech campus and he had no idea which one held the study rooms. He didn’t think he was making much noise but apparently the thump of his shoes on the worn carpet was enough to put the students crowed around desks on edge. They kept glaring at him. He quickened his pace and hurried along the doors on the back wall until he came across a plaque with an A1 inscribed on it. He tapped twice on the door before entering, too anxious to get away from the other students to wait for a response.

“You know I’ve noticed that people around here get intense about exams but this is a little rid-“. He paused at the sight of Jemma, or lack thereof, hidden behind piles of books. From the door he could just see the top of her head. “Simmons.”

“Oh Fitz, good you’re here.” She jumped up, scooped a pile of papers and note cards into her arms, clearing a very small corner of workspace, and discarded them on the floor which was already covered in numerous neat stacks of papers and books. “Now we can start on our chem notes, just put all your things there and I’ll incorporate them into mine as we go and-where are your notes?”

Fitz slid his backpack from his shoulder and discarded the contents onto his corner of the work surface. A small stack of papers and a single note card. Jemma looked up at him in disbelief. “That’s it? This is all your notes from the entire semester?”

“Well I have a few on my laptop but-“ Jemma was shuffling through his notes, most of which shared space with ideas that he had scribbled down and pertained little or not at all to the subject. “You know I’m not much of a note taker.”

“How do you intend to study from these?”

“I’m not much of a studier either.”

Jemma gave him one of her very exasperated eye rolls, pulled over a pile of her own chemistry notes and began attempting to find overlap between the two. Fitz fidgeted. He felt bad he didn’t have more to contribute but it wasn’t really his system. He wrote down very little in class, mostly if it didn’t fall under what he considered common sense. He was pretty good at retaining information so between actually paying attention and reading once over the notes he did take he was good to go for any exam.

This was clearly not the case for Jemma. Of course he noticed in class that she wrote down nearly everything the professor said but he was pretty sure she retained the information like he did, especially in these 101 classes.

“Okay it looks like everything you have written down I also have so we can just work from my notes.” He nodded in agreement and watched as she stacked everything on the table into a neat pile and placed it on the floor. She picked up another stack and started to spread things out in a very orderly manner.

“Wait do you have a pile for every class?”

She looked up at him like that was clearly a very stupid question.

“Simmons you’re single handedly killing the environment. If you’re going to take all these notes why not do it digitally.”

“I like to be able to spread things out.”

“The engineering building has a halotable prototype I’m sure I could get you permission to use it.”

Jemma finished laying out all the notes and stepped back to admire her work for a moment before replying. “That’s sweet of you Fitz but unless I could have constant access to it I don’t think I could get used to working with it.”

Fitz nodded. “So where do we start.”

“I’ve found the most effective route to take is to start with the most recent information from class and work backwards, spending a little more time each time since it’s been longer since the professor went over it, anything that doesn’t immediately stick we pull out and go over it at the end and then if it’s still fuzzy we set it aside one more time and move on to the next subject. Once we’ve been through all the subjects we go back over those bits of information left over.”

Fitz looked at her in amazement. “You intend to do that with every class your taking, Simmons you’ll be in here every night this week to get through all these notes.”

“Repetition is good for retention, that’s why I started the Chemistry, Physics and Molecular Biology notes two days ago, the exams for those classes are tomorrow and the following day.”

 “When do you sleep?”

“Every night Fitz.”

“Yeah, for how long?”

“Long enough.”

“It’ll catch up to you.”

Simmons looked up from her notes. “If you’re not going to study yourself than you can quiz me or leave.” She said pushing her papers in front of him. Fitz hastily picked up the notes and began to read.

* * *

She couldn’t believe this was actually happening. She hated it when Fitz was right; at least when it meant she was wrong. She had woken up in the library study room, head on the table, drool on her notes and her cell phone ringing incessantly from her bag. She must have fallen asleep sometime after Fitz had left. She reached for her bag. Her eyes were blurry from sleep and it took her a minute to get hold of the device and find the correct button to answer it.

“Simmons.” She answered, not checking to see who it was.

“Where the hell are you, the exam starts in five minutes?” Fitz shouted, skipping over pleasantries like ‘Hello’ and ‘how are you’.

“What are you talking about Fitz?” He wasn’t making any since. Her eyes finally started to adjust to the bright light of the room. It was awfully sunny for morning time. She twisted her wrist to look at her watch, ready to tell Fitz that he must be mistaken. Unfortunately for her he wasn’t. It was five minutes till one according to her watch. And even more unfortunately her physics classroom was about seven minutes across campus from her location at the library.

“Oh no.” Jemma started to shuffle papers around to gather what she needed before realizing it was an exam and the only thing that mattered was that she was there.

“Simmons where are you?”

“I’m still at the bloody library.” Jemma snapped. At least she was for about thirty more seconds.

“You over slept didn’t you, I told you this was going to happen.”

“Shut up Fitz, I’ll be there in a minute.”

“You had better be, you know how strict Professor Greene is, he locks the door at one on the dot.”

Jemma hung up on him. She was no field agent but she was a decent runner and it was far more likely she’d make it to the classroom on time if she didn’t waste her breath arguing with Fitz. At least the campus was mostly empty, leaving no one to stare at her awkwardly.

She knew it was too late when she reached the classroom. The door was closed but she tried the handle anyways. It was indeed locked. She raised her hand to knock but stopped. As desperate as she was to not miss her first final at the academy she couldn’t bring herself to interrupt the other test takers. It always bothered her when someone else did it.

She took a seat on the bench outside the door, maybe after the exam she could talk to Professor Greene about taking the test at a different time. It’s not like she wasn’t prepared for the exam. So she waited. Without her things she had very little to do. She managed to pull up a recent article from a science journal on her phone which distracted her until she heard the classroom door open and felt someone take a seat next to her. She didn’t look up from her phone.

“Please don’t say it Fitz,” She sighed. He didn’t say anything for a moment.

“I’m sorry, I should have called you sooner.”

That wasn’t what she had expected him to say. Not that the statement surprised her; Fitz was very good at putting the blame on himself. “It wasn’t your fault, I overslept, something you said I was going to do if I wasn’t careful.” She looked over at him and smiled. “Was it easy?”

“Oh yeah, you could have aced it without even taking the class.” He looked to the door and then back at her. “Do you think he’ll let you make it up?”

“Of course, I mean he must know I didn’t miss the exam on purpose and it’s not like I’m unprepared.” She leaned back against the wall behind her and closed her eyes. She was still quite tired. She expected Fitz to leave at that point but after a minute she heard him tapping around on his own phone. “You don’t have to wait with me.”

“Probably best if I do, if you fall asleep again you may sleep through our evening exam.” She bumped his shoulder with her own but didn’t say anything. She was tempted to rest her head on that same shoulder but thought it may make him uncomfortable. Eventually the rest of the students began to trickle out of the classroom. She noticed a few of them glance at her and then whisper to their friends. She was used to people talking about her but this time she dunked her head in embarrassment. They were surely gossiping about why she missed the final.

Fitz nudged her when the last student exited the room.

She jumped up and hurried inside before the professor could leave. Fitz followed and lingered by the door. “Sir,” Jemma said, catching Professor Greene’s attention as he collected the exams from each desk.

“Ms. Simmons, nice of you to show up.” Jemma flinched. Professor Greene did have a rep for being a tough teacher but being such a good student she’d never seen it firsthand.

“Yes, I uh wanted to apologize for that, you see I was in the library very late last night studying for my exams, this exam especially, and I must have worked a little too late because the next thing I knew I was being woken by cell phone and Fitz here-“ She waved behind her in his direction, “is freaking out because I wasn’t my usual ten minutes early for class-“

“You can stop rambling Ms. Simmons,” Professor Greene said, raising a hand.

“Of course, well I was just hoping to schedule a time to take my exam.”

“That won’t be necessary.”

Jemma faltered. “I’m sorry Sir, won’t you need a final examination to access my understanding of the class.”

“Ms. Simmons there is no doubt in my mind that you have a thorough knowledge of all the topics that we covered this semester.”

Jemma looked over her shoulder at Fitz who shrugged, clearly as mystified as she was. “I’m sorry but am I to understand that you are just going to give me a passing grade without giving me a proper examination because I’d much rather you have written proof than have you work from an assumption.”

Professor Greene smiled at her but not in a comforting way, more like he was amused by her, like she was telling a joke. “No, you’ll not be receiving a passing grade you’ll be receiving a zero as you did not take the test.”

Jemma stared at him dumbfounded. “Sir I believe our conversation started with my asking to schedule a time take the test.”

“There was a scheduled time to take the test and you were not here.”

“It was not my intention to miss the test Sir.”

“And that is not my problem.”

“But,” Jemma felt tears start to prick her eyes and tried to will them away. How was she supposed to be taken seriously if she was brought to tears by the prospect of a bad grade? She stumbled for something to say, anything that would give her a second chance. Fitz, to her relief, was quicker to come up with a reply. “Professor Greene, Simmons was only a minute late and only because she was up all night studying, I mean you should see her room at the library, and her notes for this class are more organized and informative than the textbook, you should consider having them bound and passing them out next semester.”

“Mr. Fitz, I didn’t realize this conversation concerned you, if I recall you were on time for the exam.”

“But Sir, this really isn’t fair, Jemma has been working herself crazy to prepare-“

“No Mr. Fitz what would be unfair would be for Jemma to receive an opportunity that I would not offer to any other student.”

“But-“

“Fitz,” Jemma placed a hand on his shoulder. She had become quite flustered listening to Fitz come to her defense. Her cheeks burned red and she couldn’t look Professor Greene in the eye. She appreciated what Fitz was doing but she didn’t want any special treatment. One of the things she was looking forward to most upon coming to the academy was finally being treated like every other student and not the genius girl, child prodigy.  She managed to meet Fitz’s eyes with her own and mumbled “It’s okay.”

“If that’s all,” Professor Greene gathered the test papers and picked up his briefcase ready to leave. “If it is any consolation Ms. Simmons you’ll still receive a passing grade for the class.”

Jemma nodded. After the door swung closed behind Professor Greene she moved to lean against the desk at the front of the room. After a minute Fitz joined her.

“It’s really not fair Jemma, you know the material better than anyone else in the class.”

“It’s perfectly fair Fitz, I had an opportunity to take the test and I missed it.”

“Only because you were preparing for the test.”

“I don’t want any special treatment Fitz, people have been making exceptions for me all my life and I just want to be held to the same standards as everyone else.”

“Yeah well you deserve better.”

Jemma smiled. The redness in her cheeks resurfacing again. They sat on the desk in silence for a while.

“Are you really okay with getting a zero”

Oh gracious there were the tears again. She’d never gotten a bad grade in her life, she really didn’t know how to handle it. “I’m not sure, is it silly that I want to cry?”

“No, your grades are important to you.” He replied. “Just remember that you do really know this stuff and I think that’s probably more important than having a piece of paper that proves it.”

She nodded and smiled her mind going back to something he had said earlier.

“Hey Fitz?”

“Hmm?”

“You do realize that Professor Greene wrote the textbook for this class right?”


	2. Fitz's First F

By their last semester as the academy Simmons had her study regimen down to a science. She would calculate how much time she needed to devote to each class based on how challenging it was, the type of test likely to be given, and how much time was left till the exam date. She arranged for the optimal amount of sleep prior to each exam, and set four alarms. She also made sure that she and Fitz allowed time to eat proper meals and snacks throughout finals week. This was not so much a concern for her as much as it was for him. Fitz would happily eat all his meals from the vending machine so as not to have to stray so far from the lab.

Jemma knew that Fitz rarely actually followed along with her study plan. More often than not he was simply sitting in the same room as her while she studied. It was endlessly irritating to her that he didn’t study. He would occasionally pick up the scraps of notes he took and read over them but only for his more advanced classes and when they had little to do with his preferred field of Engineering.

Like their advanced geology class which was the following day.

“Fitz, are you planning on going over any of these notes with me?”

She had been forced to give up her usual work space. He already had his final engineering project spread across every flat surface of his room and it was a hassle to move so she joined him there instead. She had to dump piles of clothes from his bed onto the mountains of clothes on the floor so she’d have some where to arrange her notes. She understood that this project was extremely important. He was supposed to design a tool to help with gathering information in the field. It was meant to cover the basics: scan surrounding area for threats first than gather and record information. Fitz had accidently gone above and beyond on the project. His logic stating that if he’s already doing one thing and it was just a few more steps to another why bother stopping.

She tried to tell him he needed to stop to eat a proper meal and get eight hours of sleep but he refused.

“I just want to run one more test of the flight capabilities; it’s heavier than my original calculations accounted for due to the additional features and I want to make sure it doesn’t affect the agility and dexterity.”

“You’ve already maneuvered it through the dorms ventilation system-.”

“Manually.” Fitz interrupted. “If it proves stable on a second test run I can begin programming it to run automatically.”

“That wasn’t on the requirements list.”

“Never stopped you.”

Jemma sighed and picked up her next set of notes. She would try again in an hour.

And the next.

And the next.

Jemma woke curled up in the corner of Fitz’s bed. Pages of notes were still spread out along the foot, they were a bit crumpled now. She fussed around trying to get to her phone to stop her alarm.

“It fell on the floor a little while ago.” Jemma looked up at the sound of Fitz’s voice. To her surprise and horror he was in the same spot, hunched over his desk, various tools in hand, he had been when she decided to “just rest her eyes for a minute” seven hours ago.

 “Oh Fitz.”

 

* * *

 

When the professor set the exam down in front of him he knew he should have listened to Simmons. The thing about geology was not just the overwhelming amount of terminology but the fact that there was so much overlap in that terminology. All the same root words in a different arrangement. If you’d seen them enough times you could differentiate them from one another but if you hadn’t reviewed them since the class you had learned them in and more important when you were working on exactly ten minutes of sleep they may as well have been the same word written over and over again.

Fitz could maybe drag his way through the terminology, defining it vaguely and giving examples. And the math portion he could probably work though without much issue. But then there was an essay. The one thing he would actually prep for in advance and so now he was looking at the expanse of blank space with absolutely nothing to fill it with.

He could hear the scratching of pencils all around him. Jemma was writing away furiously in front of him and he really wished they actually shared a brain like so many people believed. She probably had enough knowledge in her head to write three or four essays on the topic given.

He started writing, rambling really, hoping that if the words read well no one would notice what nonsense they really were.

 

A couple days later the class had gathered outside their professor’s office to collect their exams. Grades wouldn’t be posted till midnight the following day so this was the fastest way to receive back the results. Fitz didn’t really want his exam back but Simmons had dragged him along to collect her own test so there was no way out of it.

The test booklets were left in a tray on the door and as the crowd thinned out Simmons pushed her way forward to grab her test and Fitz’s. He didn’t take it when she tried to hand it to him.

“Oh come on Fitz it can’t be that bad, you never study anyways, how much worse could you have done on this exam than any other.” She prodded his arm with the test booklet.  Giving her a halfhearted glare he took it and flipped open the cover.

53%

To be honest he had expected worse.

“Oh dear.” Jemma said, peeking over his shoulder.

He flipped past the terminology, he’d missed well over half of them. The math portion seemed to have redeemed his grade but there was practically another essay written beside his in red ink explaining that while the information he provided was good it had very little to do with the prompt and almost nothing to back it up.

“Perhaps Professor Goad will let you retake the exam, I’m sure if you just explain to her that you were working on your project for Professor James she would understand.” He felt Jemma’s fingers wrap around his wrist and realized he was being tugged towards the office. “Honesty this class has almost nothing to do with your field anyway; it wouldn’t be fair to let it mar your perfect record.”

She knocked on the office door before Fitz could stop her. From inside someone called come in.

Fitz pulled back on his arm as she reached for the handle. “Wait, Jemma no, it’s not-“ he wanted to say it was not a big deal but really receiving an F was like receiving a slap to the face. The one thing he was confident about was his intelligence and test taking abilities and now he was feeling like that was being ripped away from him and it was entirely his own fault. He could surely take that exam and pass if he’d tried.

Jemma was staring at him waiting for him to finish his sentence. He really wouldn’t mind a second opportunity. “I just don’t want to make a fuss.”

Jemma raise an eyebrow at him. “Fitz you always make a fuss, even about little insignificant things.”

The door next to them opened and they jumped back. Professor Goad stood in the doorway, arms crossed and a small smirk on her face. “I thought I might be seeing you two.”

Jemma’s eyes widened and the next thing Fitz knew she was spewing out words too quickly for him to keep up. “Professor Goad, Fitz and I were wondering if perhaps he may be able to retake his exam, you see he didn’t prepare properly, despite my efforts to convince him to do so, but only because he was so insistent about working on his engineering project, you know that’s his actual field of study and he takes it quite seriously-not that he doesn’t take your class seriously-“ Professor Goad eyed him during Jemma’s ranting. Fitz had an overwhelming desire to run in hide out of embarrassment but Simmons still had her fingers tightly wrapping around his wrist. “-And while we both know that all the fields of science work with one another I believe you can understand why he would prioritize his project over all his other classes, and sleep, and bathing and a proper meal.” She finished.

Professor Goad waited a beat to be sure Jemma was done before once more turning her eyes on him. “Mr. Fitz would you like to take the exam over again?”

“I would not say no to the opportunity Ma’am.”

“You do realize you would have to be the one to take it right, Ms. Simmons would have to wait outside.”

Fitz felt his cheeks reddening rapidly. Jemma finally let go of his wrist.  He fumbled out an “I know.”

“Are you prepared to take the test, it would have to be right now if I’m going to be able to grade it in time for it to count.” Fitz hesitated. His exam trouble hadn’t been the reality check Simmons had hoped it would be and he still hadn’t looked over anything for any of his other classes. The only difference going in to take the exam this time would be about three more hours of sleep.

“I don’t actually think I am Professor.” Fitz said and he felt Jemma place her hand on his shoulder. “Would it be alright if I took some time to study and then took the exam-not for a grade?”

“That would be fine.” Fitz scheduled a time with her to come retake the test the following day. As he and Simmons walked down the hall he bumped her shoulder with his. “Would you mind helping me study?”

He half expected her to say no. A girl could only be expected to put up with so much; but to his surprise she grinned and nodded. “Of course Fitz,” her smile fell a bit, “but what about your project?”

“It’s done.” He had turned it in that morning, a few hours earlier than required just to get it away from him. At this point it did everything except make coffee and tea. A feature he had started to consider adding at about three o clock that morning.

“Oh well that’s good I suppose, I had had a suggestion that I was going make.”

“Yeah?” He asked curiously.

“Well I had been thinking with all the features it might be wiser to make several smaller devices, rather than one large one,” Fitz stopped walking as Jemma continued on, “each could have features that related to each other and gathered similar information. It was just a thought, came to me when you mentioned how heavy it was getting with all those extra features, Fitz?”

He stared at her in awe. “That’s brilliant.”

“Well I thought so.”

Before he could stop it his mind was reeling with ideas and revisions. Mentally he was mapping out how many devices would be ideal. “Seven I think, I’ll need to look at my schematics, I wonder if all the halotables are in use.” They really should consider putting one in each dorm.

“Fitz! Your exam?!”

“Huh?”

“Your exam, we were about to go study for your exam?”

“Oh right,” he said with a wave, “well this won’t take but a minute.”

“Oh no.” Fitz didn’t notice Jemma’s exasperated head shake or her hand coming to rest back around his wrist until she was pulling him off towards the library.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note that I know nothing about Geology, I just needed a field of science that wasn't Engineering but that would be logical for them to be taking as it might affect their projects in some roundabout way.   
> This was the first time I've written these characters and I'm not sure I've got them down just right yet. Definitely need a bit more practice.


End file.
